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For example, should there be a physical attack, blood drains from the skin,
fingers, and toes so that less blood is lost, and is moved to “active areas” such
as the thighs and biceps to help the body prepare for action.
This is why many feel numbness and tingling during a panic attack, often
misinterpreted as some serious health risk, such as the precursor to a heart
attack. Interestingly, most people who suffer from anxiety often feel they have
heart problems. If you are really worried that such is the case with your
situation, visit your doctor and have it checked out. At least then you can put
your mind at rest.
Respiratory Effects
One of the scariest effects of a panic attack is the fear of suffocating or
smothering. It is very common during a panic attack to feel tightness in the
chest and throat. I’m sure everyone can relate to some fear of losing control of
your breathing. From personal experience, anxiety grows from the fear that your
breathing itself would cease and you would be unable to recover. Can a panic
attack stop our breathing? No.
A panic attack is associated with an increase in the speed and depth of
breathing. This has obvious importance for the defense of the body since the
tissues need to get more oxygen to prepare for action. The feelings produced by
this increase in breathing, however, can include breathlessness,
hyperventilation, sensations of choking or smothering, and even pains or
tightness in the chest. The real problem is that these sensations are alien to us,
and they feel unnatural.
Having experienced extreme panic attacks myself, I remember that on many
occasions, I would have this feeling that I couldn’t trust my body to do the
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